On Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 5:23 PM, Raj Shekhar wrote:

Did not know India had a firewall in place. I know that the ISPs are under the thumb of the government and will dance to whatever tune is played. Is that what you are referring to?

India is intending to gett its national version of Echelon http://goo.gl/5EFlF (links to) http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/internet/Govt-to-set-up-a-natio... Feb 28, 2012, 09.51AM IST Govt to set up a national internet scanning agency NEW DELHI/BARCELONA: The Government is setting up an internet scanning agency which will monitor all web traffic passing through Internet service providers in the country. The scanning agency to be called 'National Cyber Coordination Centre, will issue 'actionable alerts' to government departments in cases of perceived security threats. The move comes as the government has been unable to prevent many terror attacks, in the absence of a credible internet scanning system. According to the minutes of a meeting held on February 3, 2012, at the National Security Council Secretariat under the Prime Minister's Office, a National Cyber Coordination Centre will 'also scan cyber traffic flowing at the point of entry and exit at India's international internet gateways.' The web scanning centre will provide 'actionable alerts for proactive actions' to be taken by government departments. All government departments will now talk to the Internet Service Providers such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communication, BSNL, MTNL and Tata Communications through NCCC for real time information and data on threats. According to sources, government is planning to invest about Rs 800 crore in the setup. "The coordination centre will be the first layer of threat monitoring in the country. It would always be in virtual contact with the control room of the Internet Service Providers," the Deputy National Security Advisor Vijay Latha Reddy said, as per minutes of the meeting. The government is collating manpower requirements for the centre currently. "At present, the monitoring of web traffic is done by Centre for Development of Telematics ( C-DoT) which has installed its equipments at the premises of ISPs and gateways," informs Rajesh Chharia, President at association of Internet service providers. All tweets, messages, emails, status updates and even email drafts will now pass through the new scanning centre. The centre may probe further into any email or social media account if it finds a perceived threat. India's National Security Council Secretariat (NCSC) has asked various departments to assess their needs for officials, who will coordinate with the scanning agency. The National Security Council handles the political, nuclear, energy and strategic security concerns of the country. As per the minutes seen by ET, Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) officials were of the view that there is no perfect system. "There is always an element of risk in using ICT. Efforts should be focused on reducing cyber security vulnerabilities," DRDO said. The meeting was attended by officials from DRDO, intelligence bureau, Indian Army, Ministry of Home Affairs, Indian Navy, Department of IT, National Technical Research Organization (NTRO), Telecom Department and Computer Emergency Response Teams of various departments. Internet scanning policy is followed in many countries. In US, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) scans the internet for keywords such as 'virus', 'bomb', or 'collapse.' The DHS sets up fake social media and Twitter accounts to scan the internet. Iran uses web surveillance to suppress dissidents. ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE